Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA)
Documentation from Regina José Galindo’s performance Lesson of Dissection (2011). © the artist, image courtesy of ESCALA.
The Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA) is a public accredited museum based at the University of Essex and contains over 700 artworks
dating from 1900 to the present, as well as an extensive archive and library.
Our students have access to the collection as part of their tuition and for research, and enjoy a variety of opportunities to work with ESCALA, including contributing to
its online catalogue.
The collection was founded in 1993 by Professor Dawn Ades, CBE, and
Professor Valerie Fraser, and is run by two of our
alumni, Director Dr Joanne Harwood and Collections Assistant Dr Sarah Demelo.
Exhibitions
ESCALA holds regular exhibitions at Firstsite gallery and many artworks are on display across our Colchester Campus. Our students have also worked
as guest curators for exhibitions including Unravelling threads and
Southern press: prints from Brazil, Paraguay, and Chile.
Events
ESCALA runs an ongoing public programme of curators’ talks, seminars and symposia, which our students attend and contribute to. The collection also
commissions artists’ performances, with previously invited artists including Felipe Ehrenberg, Regina José Galindo,
and Cecilia Vicuña.
PINTA, the Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art show
ESCALA has been regularly involved with PINTA, the Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art show since its first London edition in 2010,
participating in its Museums Acquisition Programme alongside Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou and the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, as well as contributing to its public programme.
ISLAA funding
ESCALA and the School of Philosophy and Art History also receive funding from the
Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) to support students
researching Latin American art at the University of Essex.